


Busted

by funnygirlthatbelle13



Series: Helpless [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Aromantic Caduceus Clay, Cuddles, F/M, Forehead Kisses, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Pining, Widojest - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:35:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22756372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funnygirlthatbelle13/pseuds/funnygirlthatbelle13
Summary: Jester has been doing her best to hide the fact that she has a crush on Caleb. She’s been doing a pretty good job, but a rough day’s journey leads to her taking care of his wounds in the middle of the night and accidentally revealing her feelings to Caduceus.
Relationships: Caduceus Clay & Jester Lavorre, Jester Lavorre & Caleb Widogast, Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast
Series: Helpless [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1636885
Comments: 29
Kudos: 246





	Busted

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y’all, so I came up with this as a sort of continuation to “That Would Be Enough,” but you don’t really need to know what happened there except Jester realized that she likes Caleb.

Jester stared out of the hut at the dark forest around them. The day’s journey had been pretty rough, and it had taken all of her and Caduceus’ power just to keep everyone alive. As she thought about all of the close calls of the day, a snapping sound from behind startled her. Spinning around and grabbing her symbol of the Traveler, she prepared what little energy she had to fight if need be. 

“Oh, Caleb, it’s just you,” she breathed with a sigh of relief, “Go back to sleep; you look awful.” 

He really did look terrible. Caleb had always been the squishiest, but an attack from a strange shadowy creature had left him more vulnerable than normal after it had drained out much of his strength. He had nearly died on multiple occasions, and the majority of her spells had gone into keeping him standing. But from the look of him, standing was just about all that Caleb could do. Dark purple bruises littered much of his exposed skin, one of his eyes was almost swollen shut, his lip was busted, and she could see red starting to seep into the bandages. 

“I, uh,” he mumbled, refusing to look at her, “I cannot- I’ve been having trouble going back to sleep.”

“Did the medicine wear off?” she asked. She had managed to find a few useful creams and potions in her old healing kit that had helped get her friends well enough to at least get some rest. 

“Ja, I-I also… we weren’t sure earlier but I do think my rib is broken,” Caleb mumbled as he navigated to her side on the opposite side of the hut. Jester winced in sympathy. 

“I wish I could do something more to help,” she said, rummaging through her haversack for the necessary items. 

“Do not sell yourself short, Jester,” he muttered through gritted teeth as he sat down.

For a brief moment, she reveled in the fact that he didn’t make a comment about her being a cleric that didn’t like to heal. But she refocused almost instantly. Caleb was hurt, and it was her responsibility to make it better. 

“Here, take a drink of this,” she said, handing him a half-empty green vial, “It will help with the swelling.” 

He did what she said, and Jester felt her heart aching as he handed the vial back to her, a pathetic attempt at a smile on his face. 

“What next, Doctor Lavorre?” 

It wasn’t a great joke, but Jester couldn’t help but giggle at it.

“Do you want to put more of that stuff on your lip, so it numbs a little bit?” she asked, “That might help you get some rest.” 

Caleb nodded and took the numbing cream from her, applying it all over his lip. As he did so, Jester couldn’t help but stare at them. Aside from the cut and the swelling, they looked pretty nice. Soft, not chapped at all, and a very pretty shade of pink.

Not the time, she thought to herself, and began searching for more bandages. 

“Jester,” Caleb whispered, her name coming out soft and strange as the numbing started to kick in, “What’s that?” 

She turned to see him pointing at a tear in her dress that she hadn’t even noticed. Fear surged in her for a moment before she forced it back down.

“Oh, I don't know. Where did that come from? It’s probably nothing.” 

Caleb was frowning, eyeing the tear as if searching for something. 

“Don’t worry, Caleb, I’ll take a look at it once I get your bandages switched.”

“I… okay.” 

She got to work, unwrapping wounds, applying a tiny amount of ointment, trying to ignore the tug of her heart as he winced, and rewrapping with new bandages. 

“La la la, this is going to make you feel so much better,” Jester said in a sing-songy voice, “Once you get some sleep, you’ll be good as new!” 

Caleb, for his part, simply stared up at her the entire time, moving only as much as she needed to deal with his numerous wounds. 

“There we go! All better! Now go to sleep, Caleb.”

She watched as Caleb pushed himself into a sitting position, ready to support him on the way to standing if need be. But instead, much to her surprise, he simply rested his head on her shoulder so that she could feel his nose at the edge of it. 

“Caleb? You okay?” she asked, mentally kicking herself as soon as she said it. Of course he wasn’t okay. He’d nearly died on at least three separate occasions today. There was nothing okay about it. 

“You… you are a good friend,” he whispered, and something about it took her back to a very different day after a very different fight in the basement of a jail, of an ape anxiously watching Beau, of Nott pressed tightly against his chest. Post-battle Caleb was kind of clingy, and she couldn’t help but smile at the realization. 

“So are you,” she whispered, her mind drifting to all the quiet little ways Caleb expressed his friendship. Spells and gifts and kind words that most people wouldn’t notice, but made her heart melt. 

She must have gotten lost in her thoughts longer than she realized, because the next thing Jester knew, Caleb was asleep on her shoulder. 

For a brief moment, she considered carrying him back to his bedroll beside Nott but opted against it. He would likely wake up, and she was already exhausted. Instead, she gently laid him down next to her. A strand of fire colored hair fell into his eyes, and she delicately pushed it back into place. 

“Sleep well, my beautiful wizard,” she whispered, pressing a tiny, gentle kiss onto his forehead. It was a perfect, secret little moment; something that he would never know and could never hurt him. An inconsequential display of her feelings that no one would ever know about. 

Or, at least, that’s what it was supposed to be.

“Aw, that’s nice,” a familiar mellow voice said from behind her. 

“Caduceus! What the fuck?” she cried, throwing a pillow at him. 

“Oh, sorry, should I have announced myself?” he asked pleasantly, as if he hadn’t caught her in an extremely compromising situation. 

Oh gods, she could physically feel her blushing. This was so embarrassing. 

“What are you even doing up?” she hissed at him. 

“I was gonna take the next watch.” 

Oh. Great. Now, not only was she embarrassed, she also felt bad for being mean to Caduceus for no reason. 

Jester sighed. 

“It’s okay,” Caduceus said, a kind smile on his face, “You were startled.” 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, just please don’t tell anybody about this,” she pleaded.

“Okay… why don’t you want people knowing about this?”

She bit her lip. Oh gods, was she really about to say this out loud, and to another person too? Those were some pretty big steps, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready. Thinking about her feelings was one thing, but speaking them out loud would make them more real, somehow. 

“Caduceus, have you ever liked someone? Like, like liked someone?” 

“Well, yeah, you guys are great.” 

Jester grinned.

“Well, yeah, but like, have you ever liked somebody in a way that made you want to, you know, to kiss them?”

Caduceus stared down at the ground, a frown on his face as he thought.

“Huh, no, I don’t think I have.” 

Oh. Well, that wasn’t quite what she had expected. But it made sense, she figured. Caduceus never seemed to care about that kind of thing the way that the rest of them did.

“Well, when you wanna kiss someone and you don’t know if they like you, you don’t want them to know that you like them like that. It makes you look really stupid if they don’t like you them the same way.”

“Huh,” Caduceus commented, though Jester couldn’t tell what he meant by it. 

“Like, when I liked Fjord but Fjord liked Avantika… that was really stupid. And everybody knew, so it was extra stupid.” 

“I don’t think it was stupid,” Caduceus said, “You had these emotions and you expressed them. It’s just that your feelings and his didn’t match up.”

Jester felt the blush on her skin the longer they talked about her old crush on Fjord. She had felt so sure about her crush on Fjord at the time, and yet, it had gone pretty badly. They were still good friends, but her attempts at flirting had definitely made things awkward. The last thing she wanted was to make the same mistakes with Caleb. This was something unlike anything she’d ever felt or read before. Falling for Fjord had seemed so obvious, like something out of a romance novel. Her feelings for Caleb, on the other hand, were messy and complicated and a bit sad and had crept up on her. They felt so strange, so… real. 

“Don’t worry, Jester,” Caduceus said, a gentle twinkle in his eye, “I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thank you, Caduceus,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

His eyes wandered from her face to the tear in her dress before coming right back up.

“Yeah,” he said, leaving Jester not for the first time wondering what he was thinking, “Just… get some rest. We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”

Nodding, she laid down where she was, wrapping an arm around Caleb. Instinctively, his hand reached out to hold his.

“Aw, that’s nice,” Caduceus said.

A blanket landed on top of the two of them, and Jester cuddled in closer. Tomorrow, she would come up with an excuse for how they ended up like this, but for now, she just focused on enjoying what it felt like to hold Caleb. He was very warm, even on a snowy night like tonight. 

“Ich verdiene sie nicht,” he mumbled. She didn’t know what it meant, but he sounded upset.

“Sh,” she whispered, running her fingers through his hair, “Sh.”

Caleb whined slightly, leaning into her touch. She kept running her fingers through his hair, whispering soothing nonsense. It took a couple minutes, but eventually he calmed down.

She breathed a sigh of relief, pressing her head into his shoulder blades where he actually wasn’t hurt. Caleb wasn’t the softest person to lay on, but there was something about him that made him feel like home. 

With her eyes pressed closed, she listened to Caduceus humming to himself and the distant noise of owls. From behind her, Beau’s snoring intensified. 

A smile on her face, Jester wiggled closer to Caleb and let herself fall asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> So, here it is! Did you like it? Would you like this to be a continuing series of widojest moments? Please leave your thoughts down below!


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